


Underground

by MrProphet



Category: Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 03:49:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10689168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	Underground

“I started digging these tunnels more than fifteen years ago, in the early months of the Martian invasion. It took me time to find people to join me, but in time we grew strong. 

“More have joined us over the years, here in our underground world. I know, you think it is dark and dismal, but better this than to cower under the Martian yoke; to feed them with our blood. Better to live free in the dark and feed on their servants; on men and women who would lie to us and tell us that the world above is safe.”

“It is safe!” Amersham insisted. “The Martians died out years ago. They…”

To our horror, the leader of the subterraneans – the one they called the Artilleryman – leaped forward with a shuffling spring and smote Amersham with a heavy, bone club, staving in that proud, domed brow and shattering one of the world’s finest minds. Yet it was not the shocking waste of that violent outburst that appalled us, but the visage of the Artilleryman himself.

Like his followers he was stoop-shouldered and bow-backed, his arms long and almost apelike. He wore the shreds of a Royal Artillery uniform and his speech had seemed to mark him as human, but his face was distorted, deformed, almost canine in its aspect. His feet were cloven hooves, and saliva dripped from his fangs as he licked the blood from his weapon, which I now recognised as a human thighbone.

“You are liars, come to destroy our paradise,” he snarled, “but we have a use even for you.”

He gave a sharp bark of command and his followers closed in, tearing at poor Amersham’s body with their claws and teeth, hooting and howling obscenely.

Through it all, the Artilleryman watched us, his eyes dark, cruel and hungry.


End file.
